The majority of matches in the penultimate week of the NFL 2023 season take place in the two regular slots of games on Sunday on a day where the playoff picture is going to endure a significant shake up.
This is a typical Sunday for us watching on in the UK in that there are two live matches in full for us to enjoy as well as the Red Zone show which will cover the best bits of all the games. Bookmakers have live streaming available too.
1pm Kick Offs (6pm UK Time)
We have a crackerjack of a game in the AFC to enjoy first up on Sunday as the current number one and two seeds meet when the Baltimore Ravens play host to the Miami Dolphins. The Ravens will secure the number one seed with a win but the Dolphins can take it to the final week should they come out on top. Nine other matches take place at this point in proceedings with the Buffalo Bills hoping to keep their AFC East title hopes alive should the Dolphins lose. They will need to beat New England Patriots for that to happen. The Houston Texans are now on the bubble in the AFC playoff race and will look to get back in when they host the Tennessee Titans while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will aim to continue to lead the way in the NFC South when the New Orleans Saints are the visitors to Florida.
That leaves us with six matches elsewhere with the Chicago Bears hosting the Atlanta Falcons while the Indianapolis Colts will be looking to maintain their playoff push when they host the Las Vegas Raiders. The Jacksonville Jaguars are in a real slump and will be without quarterback Trevor Lawrence for the visit of the Carolina Panthers while the Los Angeles Rams will look to stay out in front in the NFC wildcard race when they make the trip to the New York Giants. Philadelphia Eagles controversially saw the Dallas Cowboys overtake them in the NFC East on Saturday night and they will look to dispose of the Arizona Cardinals and get back to the lead in that division. San Francisco 49ers will go into the final week of the season in control of the number one seed if they can win away to the Washington Commanders.
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4.05/4.25pm Kick Offs (9.05/9.25pm UK time)
We only have three matches in the later slot on Sunday with the pick of them coming from the Arrowhead Stadium where the Kansas City Chiefs will be looking to sew up the AFC West title when they welcome the Cincinnati Bengals to Missouri. There were some who were expecting this to be the AFC Championship match next month but the Bengals’ injury issues will ensure that doesn’t happen. Cincinnati won’t have given up hopes of being in the playoffs though so this is a match they’ll be keen to win.
That leaves us with two other matches in the evening with one of them coming in the AFC West where the Denver Broncos will hope that the Kansas City Chiefs slip up in the main game in which case they can keep them in the hunt for the AFC West title. Even if that option isn’t open to them they can still keep their slender playoff hopes alive if they can beat the Los Angeles Chargers. The other match sees the Seattle Seahawks hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers in a match where the playoff hopes for the loser will be in serious jeopardy.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like over the course of these games because matches either have nothing on them or plenty on them. There are some huge matches though so I can’t let the entire session go without a bet on one of the games and that will come in the second of the TV matches where the Kansas City Chiefs play the Cincinnati Bengals in what still might be a close and dramatic game albeit a lower scoring one than we would have expected at the start of the season.
The bet I like though is for Patrick Mahomes to rush for more than 18.5 yards. The one thing which we saw last week in the loss to the Las Vegas Raiders was that Mahomes is clearly aware that the offense is struggling and he is happy to try and muster some impact out of it with his own legs. Last week he went off on 10 rushes for 53 yards and in total in the 15 matches he has played this season he has reached 19 yards on 11 occasions, which when he hasn’t been fully fit himself shows how he is being involved more on the other side of his offensive skills. Cincinnati struggle to contain mobile quarterbacks so I expect Mahomes to have no issues reaching 19 yards again here.
Tips
Back P.Mahomes – Over 18.5 rushing yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with Boylesports
Back him here:
